Does anyone have recommendations for some non-fiction history books? A couple that I've really enjoyed were Montaillou (detailed account of life in a 13th century heretical French village, based on Inquisition records) and Son of the Morning Star (dense, well-written account of Custer and the historical context of Little Bighorn). I'm not attached to any particular time period, though I'm not much interested in the 20th century, so say anything pre-industrial.

I'm not really looking for breezy historical biography, but something with a little more scholarly meat on its bones. Any suggestions?

I'm sure several of these lack ebook editions; I didn't really pay any attention to that when collecting the links. Many or most will have them though. These are mainly "short" and readable works, rather than monumental, comprehensive, multi-volume works spanning multiple feet of shelf space (mine are mainly paper editions), but if you want tips on those you can always return later.

Montaillou is one of my favorite books of all time. That being said, dare I suggest a 20th century tome, The Great War and Modern Memory, also from my all-time list? This is an interesting question and I have to give it more thought.

So far I've added Life in a Medieval Village and Albion's Seed (DH Fischer--looks very interesting) to my list. I guess I'm not much interested in overviews, either, like "History of X from yyyy to zzzz." I prefer either a detailed look at a single event, person or location, or something with a thesis. Although, "Inside Central Asia" looks interesting. My interest in the region stems from a love of yurts

I'm not sure if they're scholarly enough, but I really enjoyed "The Great Siege: Malta 1565" by Ernle Bradford, and "Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years 1830-1910" by Richard J. Evans. They both provide a window into past cultures during times of great crisis.

I second the David Hackett Fischer recommendation--I especially like _Paul Revere's Ride_. Another good US history book is Melton McLaurin, _Celia, A Slave_, a true story of a slave who murdered her master.

It turns out I'm much, much more of a "just give me an overview, will you?" than a "dammit, I want every trifling detail!" kind of guy, so I'm not having a lot of luck digging up what you want so far. It also doesn't help a lot that 80% of my books are in storage... I'll keep checking though.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is a narrative history book by the American historian Barbara Tuchman, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1978. It won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in History[1][a] The main title, A Distant Mirror, conveys Tuchman's idea that the death and suffering of the 14th century reflect that of the 20th century, especially the horrors of World War I.
The book's focus is the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages suffered by Europe in the 14th century: the Hundred Years' War, the Black Plague, the Papal Schism, pillaging mercenaries, anti-Semitism, popular revolts including the Jacquerie in France, the liberation of Switzerland, the Battle of the Golden Spurs, and peasant uprisings against laws that enforced the use of hops in beer. She also discusses the advance of the Islamic Ottoman Empire into Europe, ending in the disastrous Battle of Nicopolis. Yet Tuchman's scope is not limited to political and religious events. She begins with a discussion of the Little Ice Age, a change in climate that reduced the average temperature of Europe until the 18th century, and takes care to describe the lives of the people, from nobles and clergymen, right down to the peasantry.
Tuchman relies much on Froissart's Chronicles.
Much of the narrative is woven around the French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy. Tuchman chose him as a central figure partly because he lived a relatively long life and could therefore stay in the story during most of the 14th century. (Coucy was born in 1340, seven years before the Black Death began in southern Italy. He died in 1397.) He was also close to much of the action, tied to both France and England. (Coucy was a French noble, but he married Isabella, the eldest daughter of Edward III of England. He and his contemporaries ruthlessly suppressed the Jacquerie.)